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Technology Vision 2035
“Technology Vision 2035,” developed by the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council, claims to identify key challenges and needs of India and describe its technology capability landscape in 2035. It is important to understand the backstage process of participation in the development of this vision document, and bring forth the imagination of the citizen underlining the vision’s horizon. In the context of its “diversity” claims, it is essential to ask if one vision is really possible for such a huge and diverse country, or should we be talking, instead, of many visions, and a diversity of visions?
The authors would like to thank Vanya Bisht for her help in the research and writing of this article.
This article is the outcome of a project on technology visioning carried out at the DST (Department of Science and Technology) Centre for Policy Research, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Early in 2016, the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) released what is called India “Technology Vision 2035” (TV 2035) (TIFAC 2015). It is an account of what we as a people and a country can be (and should be) in 2035. TV 2035 claims to be rooted in the “collective aspirations of the people of India, the ambitions of our youth and the likely expectations of Indians in 2035 as the country grows” (p 18). People in TV 2035 are stated to be as important as the technology: “It considers the technological ‘peoplescape’ of India to be as important as its technological landscape. Fully cognisant that there is no India without Indians, TV 2035 speaks to—and of —all Indians” (p 28).
And because TV 2035 speaks to—and of—all Indians, we assume that we will be in there, that we have been counted, and that we have been accounted for. So it is only obvious to ask, what does TV 2035 have for us? What does it allow us? Where does it see us in 2035? How does it allow us to see ourselves in the context of the future as a citizen of this country? How does TV 2035 play out/play up against the many questions that all individuals like us would have about themselves, their future and their place in an India of 2035?
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